It’s our last Whatcha Reading of 2017, so let’s make it a spectacular one with lots of good books and reading moments! Or you know, we could just embrace all of our trash fire reading too. Do whatever your heart desires!
However you do or don’t celebrate the holidays, we at SBTB hope you have a wonderful time and that many amazing books await you in 2018!
Redheadedgirl: Well I just got Suleikha Snyder’s Seared ( A | BN | K | AB ), which I’m super excited about.
Amanda: That’s my cocktail this month! I’m excited to put it together.
Carrie: I just started Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). am only a few pages in, but I have high hopes.
Sarah: Based on the recommendation of an upcoming guest review from Tara Scott, I am reading Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler, a f/f contemporary winter sports romance. It’s terrific.
I particularly like Corey, the snowboarder, who is a wonderful combination of very silly and goofy and laid back, while also being very smart, clever, and optimistic.
Amanda: I have two library books: one was a hold and the other was picked up a whim. The hold was Unbelievable by Katy Tur ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction books tied to the recent election and honestly, I can’t for the life of me figure out why.
The whim book is Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick. The hero is a treasure hunter/archaeologist of sorts and the heroine runs her own secretarial agency. Both have mystery pasts that have yet to be explained. I’m enjoying it so far.
Elyse: Right now I’m reading Year One by Nora Roberts ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I’m not sure what to read after that. Most of my books are currently in the tree…
Amanda: Jenga that tree!
Sarah: JENGA TREE
Redheadedgirl: I just stumbled on a book called A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which looks super fascinating and I guess I’m going to the library this afternoon.
And on the suggestion of the Fug Girls, I’m going to give Daughter of Empire a try ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Maybe what I need is some historical nonfiction to refocus.
Sarah: I think there is a documentary of that book!
Tell us what you’ve read this month! And, as always, thank you so much for hanging out with us and making this site so wonderful.
By request, since we can’t link to every book you mention in the comments, here are bookstore links that help support the site with your purchases. If you use them, we greatly appreciate it, and if you’d prefer not to, no worries. Thanks for being a part of SBTB and hopefully, you’ve found some great books to read!
I was super sick for three weeks, but I had some great books to read and listen to and I survived. Thank goodness for Miles Vorkosigan!
Faves
– KOMARR / A CIVIL CAMPAIGN / WINTERFAIR GIFTS (all audio) by Lois McMaster Bujold – YOU GUYS! Omg, you guys! These books, along with last month’s MEMORY are now some of my favorite books ever. I’m in love with these books, the humor, the politics, the shifting genres. I want to shove these in the hands of everyone I see. Good news is that I *think* these three stand on their own and you get them all in a bind-up called MILES IN LOVE. Please read these, please?
– ROLLING IN THE DEEP / INTO THE DROWNING DEEP by Mira Grant – killer mermaids, killer mermaids, killer mermaids, soooooo good! And so Michael Crichton-y!
– HATE TO WANT YOU / WRONG TO NEED YOU by Alisha Rai – I’ve never read Rai before and now I need to glom everything she’s ever published?! “Hate” was one of the sexiest books I’ve read in awhile and “Wrong” is one of my top 5 romances ever.
– LUMBERJANES #1-17 by Noelle Stevenson & Various – This is like, PARKS AND REC meets BUFFY or THE ADVENTURE ZONE? It’s lovely and perfect.
Good
– POPPY JENKINS by Clare Ashton – f/f contemporary romance in a Welsh village with sweet humor and second chances plot
– MARINE BIOLOGY / THE SUMAGE SOLUTION by Gail Carriger – m/m urban fantasy romances. Sexier than Carriger’s usual fare but with her distinctive ear for dialog. The worldbuilding confused me though. I hope it’s fleshed out in future books.
– A SECRET SISTERHOOD: THE LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS OF JANE AUSTEN, CHARLOTTE BRONTE, GEORGE ELIOT, & VIRGINIA WOOLF by Emily Midorikawa & Emma Claire Sweeney – female friendships in history, yay! A little dry for lack of sources. Sisters, why ya gotta burn the letters, huh?
– AUTONOMOUS by Annalee Newitz – Robots discovering free will and love mixed with medicinal drug pirates from future-Canada!
– WE’RE GOING TO NEED MORE WINE: STORIES by Gabrielle Union – open, honest, funny memoir. A little oddly laid out. TW: discussion of rape.
– THE CITY OF BRASS by S.A. Chakraborty – The worldbuilding of this 18th century Egypt-inspired historical fantasy is wonderful but the romance borders on insta-love.
– THE HOUSE ON FOSTER HILL by Jamie Jo Wright – I wanted to like this more than I did, but the mystery was flat and I think it was an inspirational? I’m not sure, but it was kind of just placed on top. Like, mystery, mystery, mystery, phrase about faith. It kept throwing me off balance.
Currently Reading
– THE GIRL IN THE TOWER by Katherine Arden – the sequel to THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE, this starts of right where the first ended and I’m enjoying it so far!
Well the book I’m reading isn’t romance though it has romantic elements. Big Little Lies (originally Little Lies) by Liane Moriarty is knocking my socks off. It’s set in Australia and starts with someone being murdered at an elementary school fund raiser. Then it goes back in time to six months previous and tells the story through the view point of three women. It’s strongly character driven and for the whole book you’re wondering who died at the beginning all the while being entertained by interesting and masterfully intertwining plot lines. It’s so awesome HBO turned it onto a one off series I’m dying to watch.
I read and enjoyed the Martha Ballard book. ‘Good Wives’, also by Ullrich, is even better!
On another historical note, Amanda Vickery’s ‘Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England’, is interesting if not edge-of-your-seat material. There’s an entire chapter on wallpaper, for example. If you’re looking for a resource book, it’s great. I also enjoyed her ‘The Gentleman’s Daughter’.
The new Stephanie Plum: I like the series in general, but this one was meh. I don’t like Diesel at all.
Darkness on His Bones by Barbara Hambly: Her almost-current vampire book that isn’t priced insanely (14.99 is Too Much for a Kindle book). I like Hambly’s writing, but the overall book wasn’t awesome.
The Alienist by Caleb Carr: Just started and we’ll see how it goes.
The standout for me this month was the Genevieve Turner novel Forever a Soldier in the Kiss Me Cowboy anthology. The heroine had a Turkish background – it was the first time I’ve come across that, and it wasn’t just icing on the cake, it was absolutely integral to the character. The hero was a veteran with anxiety disorder (he reminded me a life but of Wes in All I Am). Thoroughly satisfying.
So I went on a Genevieve Turner glom and discovered her series of historicals set in late 19th century California, with an appropriately multicultural cast of characters. I think the first was free. I’ve really enjoyed them. Also enjoyed the novella Seduced in September, a Regency romance between a governess and a stable master (no duke!!).
I’ve also been cleaning out my bookshelves and rereading before I decide to keep or donate. So far I’ve reread some Heyers and am keeping Regency Buck and The Foundling, consigning The Grand Sophy and Cousin Kate to the op shop.
Reminded me a little bit of Wes! Don’t know where a life but came from!
Due to a decision I made last month to remove as much toxicity and negativity from my life as possible, I have taken a serious step back from the internet and, in consequence, have done a lot of reading with varying degrees of enjoyment. Mount TBR has diminished slightly.
Penmarric by Susan Howatch: I haven’t read this since the 70s. I still enjoyed it, but the depiction of rape and other matter disturbs me more than it used to.
The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis. I liked the segments in the 50s, but the current-day parts irritated me. The main character made one bad decision after another (seriously, who gives up a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan? I don’t care how much in love you are), but, although she gets cast down for a bit as a result, everything always comes up peachy for her.
Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell: A cute YA short about waiting in line to see The Force Awakens. Parts of it seemed highly unlikely, but I had been lamenting the excitement of waiting in line for a big movie, so it was fun. That doesn’t mean I’ll give up the convenience of on-line ticket purchase and reserved seats.
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough: I’m not sure how well this held up after so many years, but the descriptions of Australia are still gorgeous.
Magic Flutes by Eva Ibbotson: I love her books. To me they are the perfect frothy, comfort read palate cleanser when the sludge of the real world gets to be too much.
A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles: I have a bit of a problem with m/m historicals because of the legal issues of the time. She did her best to navigate this, but I still found too much of what went on to be very unlikely to work.
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt: I’ve been meaning to try the Maiden Lane books. I enjoyed the atmosphere, but didn’t care for our hero. Duke… something, something… cannot love, etc. I don’t know if I’ll bother with any of the rest.
A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor: The depiction of the flower sellers in the poorest parts of London was very good, but there were a few too many coincidences for me.
The Widower’s Wife by Cate Holahan: A suspense with a completely unbelievable resolution.
Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor by Anne Edwards: a slightly rose-coloured biography of the queen’s grandmother. Good to get me ready to watch season 2 of The Crown.
Loving a Lost Lord by Mary Jo Putney: I love Putney. The Rake is one of my all-time favourites and I really enjoyed this, but a few too many people came back from the dead. I can only suspend disbelief so far.
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas: This one, I totally enjoyed – read it in almost one sitting. I will definitely read the next, but decided that the main character is probably best taken in small doses and decided to hold off for a bit.
Unlocked by Courtney Milan: For some reason, Milan just doesn’t work for me. I can recognize the quality of her writing and appreciate her fresh characters, but… I’ve tried several of her books and get frustrated wondering why I don’t like them more.
Sorry about the wall of text, but my resignation from the internet and a ton of free time while on medical leave had me devouring books all month.
Following Moose’s recommendations (thank you, Moose!), I’ve started reading before bed to make sure I get a daily dose of words. I even bought a clip light for my Kindle so I can see the screen in the dark corner where I burrow.
It’s a romance-free month because I am NOT IN THE MOOD.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: All of the yes! Definitely a female rage book. There’s a dead child right at the beginning, and don’t expect it to get less brutal as it goes along. I felt early on there were a couple types of storytelling shenanigans afoot, and when they were confirmed, I got that “I cracked the case!” rush that’s usually reserved for mysteries, which was a nice bonus. I got to the end and was mad at myself for not having the next book to slide right into.
Food of the Gods (Rupert Wong 1 & 2) by Cassandra Khaw: So much no! The thing that sucked me in (undead demon babies wanting to unionize) was never mentioned again, a problem that plagued the whole story. It read like a serial that never referenced its previous chapters and therefore didn’t hold together as a whole. (“This happened and then this random thing happened and then this other random thing happened” rather than “This happened, and as a result, this happened, but this unpleasant side effect also occurred, which led to…”) I looked back once trying to find an explanation for one of many “Huh? Who are you? What the hell is happening? Are there chapters missing?” moments, and that explanation didn’t exist. I was mad at the end of that one, too, but not at myself.
We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory: Quietly good. Five survivors of trauma who report supernatural phenomena are brought into group therapy. Links are established. An overarching story emerges. Each character has enough personality to remember by name. It was a good palate cleanser after its predecessor. Gory things happen, but they’re not depicted in exquisite narrative detail. Main trigger warning for a self-inflicted death.
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw: Started last night, so far, so good. Greta Helsing, physician to the “differently alive.” She has supportive work friends, caring relationships with her patients, and a congenial ex who helps with research. Nary a lone wolf nor kicked ass in sight.
The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes by Beth Hensperger: Yes, it’s a cookbook. Yes, I’m reading it like a novel. Every bread has a beautiful story to tell. When it feels right, I bake something (bagels yesterday), but we have the rest of our lives together — there’s no need to rush things.
Guittard Chocolate Cookbook: I’ve made two things (Chocolate Pistachio Sables and Black Bottom Cupcakes) and was underwhelmed. “Not worth the number of bowls I have to wash” isn’t a high rating, but not the worst. I’m going to try a brownie next, but just looking at the amount of flour in the ingredients, I suspect it will be a “THIS IS CAKE, DAMMIT!” situation. Pretty pictures, though.
Loved
THE RAVEN PRINCE by Elizabeth Hoyt – Hoyt managed to overturn all my expectations of a brooding hero wallowing in his disfigurement. I fell in love with Edward’s irascible pragmatism and his interactions with the heroine, his servants, and his foppish best friend. The strong characters definitely elevate this book, which is very light on plot. I’m conflicted in my one complaint, which is how the significant barrier to their HEA was magicked away in the epilogue. I want this couple to have a happy life, so I’m delighted for them. But I also want obstacles to be real because life. So: yay! But not.
A DUKE OF HER OWN by Eloisa James – When I realized the Desperate Duchesses series followed two narrative threads (the reconciliation of the Duke and Duchess of Beaumont and the redemption of the Duke of Villiers), I felt like the double rainbow guy. OMG! It’s full on! Two plot threads! Unfortunately, while I like slow burn, I don’t at all enjoy slow misery. The Beaumonts were so prickly I had to skip straight from book 1 to book 5. There, I discovered a lot of stuff I didn’t like, particularly the tepid reasons for the infidelity that drove the duchess away in the first place. All the more remarkable, then, that I proceeded to book 6 and fell in love with Villiers’ romance (and with the heroine’s sister, who is stunningly forthright). This book can be read as a standalone if you want to avoid the Beaumont drama entirely, but the preceding five books do unfold a lot of Villiers’ character, particularly his inchoate desire for a family and a partner. My strongest criticism of A Duke of Her Own would be the illogic of Villiers’ excuse for choosing the wrong woman as the better prospective mother for his brood of illegitimate children when the heroine repeatedly showed her compassion, kindness, and strength. But since the heroine didn’t want to be wooed for her maternal qualifications, his shortsightedness was all for the best.
Liked
A DUKE IN SHINING ARMOR by Loretta Chase – Pages and pages of snappy dialogue swept me along Olympia and Ripley’s romance. However, Chase is also setting up another book in the series dealing with Ripley’s sister Alice and his friend/her husband the Duke of Blackwood, and I was so distracted by those hints that this first entry in the “Difficult Dukes” series suffers in a way it wouldn’t have if it had been a true standalone romance. To put it another way: I contentedly returned the library loan without racing out to buy the book because I don’t feel the need to revisit this couple unless I fall in love with Blackwood’s story.
FOUR NIGHTS WITH THE DUKE by Eloisa James – I borrowed this for the contract implied in the title. I love “arrangement” tropes, from the marriage of convenience to the sex contract. The execution of that element here didn’t satisfy me, but all is forgiven because an otherwise untamable horse falls in love with the heroine. It was a little like reading a platonic beast-and-wallflower romance unfold alongside the human romance, which wasn’t so much beast-and-wallflower as oversexed angry guy + woman with low self-esteem. (#notafurry…probably)
Mixed Feelings
THE FORBIDDEN ROSE and THE BLACK HAWK by Joanna Bourne – When I read Maiden Lane, I praised the interaction of the population of the world Hoyt developed and wished it would become the norm in historical romance series. Bourne’s Spymaster series wins all the prizes for meaningful re-use of characters. Her spies have helped and opposed each other for years. They are all up in each other’s business as mentors and partners and adversaries. Their stories overlap at significant scenes and involve many of the same creeptastic antagonists. And that’s where “beware what you ask for, Deborah” kicks in for me. The Spymaster series is definitely not lighthearted, and after a while I started to feel claustrophobic in my desire to escape the cynicism, distrust, world-weariness, and physical abuse. Both of these books were excellent, but I cannot imagine ever wanting to re-read them.
AN INFAMOUS MARRIAGE by Susanna Fraser – Jack Armstrong had been home from his military post for one day when his childhood best friend, newly married and dying from chicken pox complications, begged him to provide for his wife by marrying Elizabeth after his death. Jack does so, then returns to duty in Canada without consummating the marriage, leaving his new wife behind to look after his mother and his estate. Jack returns five years later to do battle with a wife outraged by the rumors of his infidelities that had trickled back to their small town. While the premise is pretty far-fetched, as is Jack’s falling in insta-lust with his wife five years and 30 minutes after he married her, everything else about this short novel is really well grounded, particularly Jack’s military career and Elizabeth’s estate management. My problem is that the infidelity obstacle is presented too weakly to really matter. Yes, Elizabeth is hurt and angry, but she also acknowledges that she didn’t expect fidelity from her new husband given the circumstances of their marriage. Supposedly, it’s the indiscreet way he went about cheating on her that offends her. She felt publicly shamed and isolated herself from village society…even though only one malicious person mentioned the rumors to her. (On the plus side: once they get past the issue, Elizabeth takes a really assertive role in their lovemaking. Nothing so dramatic as to suggest Armstrong is a submissive, but she comes across as the boss of the bedroom in the book’s very tasteful sex scenes.)
JUST A BIT SHAMELESS by Alessandra Hazard – The Straight Guys series is a bunch of tropey gay for you romances mostly populated by heteronormative archetypes driven largely by sexual kink (except sometimes not gfy and other times not kinky, but it’s just safer to assume they are before you go wading in). It’s the tropes and the feels that get me, although there are a couple of books in the series I could rant about for days. Most of the books can be read as standalones, but you shouldn’t even read the description of Shameless until you’ve read book 6, Just a Bit Ruthless. So the most I can reveal is that one of the tropes here is an age gap, and the kink is sugar baby/daddy. (Is that a kink?) And this is definitely one of the gay for you (not surprise!bisexual) entries in the series. Sadly, the author seemed to be out of her league with the plotty part of the plot, which involves secret agents. But despite the awkwardness, I have an affectionate fondness for this book, if for no other reason than that it ties into book 6, which features one of my favorite pairings in the series.
Jayne Ann Krentz just gets her own category, okay?
SECRET SISTERS by Jayne Ann Krentz – One of the reasons I’m so bitter about JAK’s switch from romance to romantic suspense is that I think her suspense plots have always been arbitrary and weak. I was pleasantly surprised to find the suspense part of this novel was a cut above anything I’ve seen published by Krentz this century. The bad guys were a seven-layer dip of intrigue and narcissism and ambition and family dysfunction. Relieved of my usual plot-based resentment, I was able to focus exclusively on why the romance part of her formula has stopped working for me: lately, her protagonists have no joy. They’re surviving rather than living, and joining their lives is more an act of grim determination than hopeful optimism. (The heroine’s childhood trauma invites comparison between Secret Sisters and JAK’s The Golden Chance. I strongly recommend the earlier title.)
THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Amanda Quick – I try to approach each new JAK novel with the acceptance that she no longer writes romance, but it never works and I am disappointed every single time. Nevertheless, I keep reading because she recycles ideas so frequently that each book becomes part of the larger pattern in her huge body of work. Although the romantic relationship in this book did nothing for me, my slash sensors were running on overdrive for the hero (a stage magician turned hotelier after an illusion gone terribly wrong permanently damaged his leg) and his good friend Luther Pell (an older, debonair nightclub owner…and the son of crime lord Jonathan Pell from Quick’s ‘Til Death Do Us Part):
This soul stuff is more romantic than anything Oliver thinks about the heroine, Irene. Managed properly, 1930s Burning Cove has the potential to become a well-developed world where characters from earlier books could play meaningful roles in later stories. Unfortunately, this is also the book where I’ve come to recognize the amorality of the vigilantism in JAK’s recent work. She used to base whole relationships on the heroine’s ability to sway the hero from a revenge plot. Now, her “good” characters are slaying with impunity or blithely accepting murder by side characters because the victim “deserved it.” I have not evolved with the author in this regard.
RENDEZVOUS by Amanda Quick, audiobook narrated by Anne Flosnik – I picked this up in the Black Friday Audible sale, even though I had previously been disappointed in Flosnik’s narration of Ravished. Here’s the deal: she makes Quick’s heroes sound unbearably, unrelentingly smug. In fairness to Flosnik, Quick’s heroes are smug; however, I am somehow able to lighten their oppressiveness when I read the text. With Flosnik, there’s no escape. I regret allowing her to shred Gideon, and I am not letting her get her voice near Simon (Scandal) or Sebastian (Dangerous).
Not my cup of tea
POTENT PLEASURES by Eloisa James – I ranted about this (complete with spoilers, sorry) in an SBTB sale post earlier this week.
LOVE, COME TO ME by Lisa Kleypas – I imagine Kleypas objected when the publisher decided to cash in on her popularity by reissuing this early work, and they eventually compromised by adding the charming author’s preface. At times, Love, Come to Me reads like an inverted Gone with the Wind, with the hero a war-weary displaced Virginian in New England rather than a carpetbagging Northener and the heroine…well, Lucy is an interesting choice for a heroine. From the moment we’re introduced to her, we’re told she’s been protected and indulged. She appears to have suffered no privations during the war, even though her supposedly beloved future-now-former fiancé was off fighting in it. It’s positively surreal when Lucy is attempting to defend her home and marriage against an encroaching southern widow and her husband details all the war-related suffering the widow has endured versus his wife’s safe and cozy existence in the North. It’s as if every narrative choice is designed to show the heroine in an unsympathetic light. If Kleypas’s point is that a woman shouldn’t have to suffer to be worthy of love (which would be kind of revolutionary for an ’80s romance), I think it would have helped the story to make that more explicit.
DELICIOUS by Sherry Thomas – This is my second Sherry Thomas strike out. Maybe she’s just not for me. I have no patience with her use of flashback (my previous Sherry Thomas was Ravishing the Heiress). I was more interested in the secondary romance than in the primary, but 3/4ths of the protagonists in Delicious had a calculating or intolerant edge that made them difficult to like. The food ecstasy didn’t work for me, nor the contrivances employed to hide the heroine’s identity from the hero, her new employer. Also, second-chance romances rarely work for me because I just wallow in the sadness of wasted time. Life is too precious to screw things up and let a decade go by. Finally, the climactic revelation scene was ludicrous. Nonsensical. Maybe even horrific. But…I did find the bit with the galoshes charming. And I hope I never forget the music hall/symphonic concert metaphor for sexuality, though it lacks the judgment-free language of Spartacus’s snails and oysters.
Audiobooks
I only listen to books I’ve already read and enjoyed, so this is really just an assessment of the performance.
DEVIL IN SPRING by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Mary Jane Wells – To my ear, Wells has a significant and satisfying range of character voices. Her Pandora sounds young and a little uncivilized, quite a contrast to gentle Helen from Marrying Winterborne. I really enjoyed the American ambassador’s wife, Pandora’s footmonster Drago, and Ethan Ransom (I had wondered what his middle-class accent was supposed to sound like). But it was Gabriel (aka St Vincent the younger) that made me yearn to hear his father’s voice seducing Evie, so I sprang for…
DEVIL IN WINTER by Lisa Kleypas, narrated by Rosalyn Landor – Oh, dear. I thought Landor did an amazing job with Evie’s stutter and wallflower whisper, but poor Sebastian sounds like some fusty, middle-aged, bewhiskered, retired colonel. Except in those scenes where he’s actively seducing Evie and approaches the purring tones I would expect to hear from him always. If I could only get a version of this audiobook with Wells’s Sebastian and Landor’s Evie: the best of all possible worlds.
I blazed through Cat Sebastian’s newest, “It Takes Two To Tumble”, between Thursday night and Friday morning. So good. I can always count on her to have wonderful heroes and lovely stories that acknowledge the difficulties and possible peril of queer love in Regency England, but the couple is never in any real danger. Her books are like a balm for my brain.
“Court of Owls” by Kate Elliot. I really liked this one, but found the society not as matriarchal as claimed by the Book Riot article’s author.
Other than that, I have accumulated lots to read over the semester. Now that winter break is here, I can get to some of it. Some of my TBR:
Comics:
5 volumes of DC Bombshells
3 volumes of Serenity
A dozen floppy issues of Star Trek: Boldly Go
An assortment of Wonder Woman comics and books about her, including “Wonder Woman: Ambassador of Truth”, which might be the prettiest book on her I have yet seen.
Bitch Planet vol 1 (because I am feeling wonderfully noncompliant this year)
Books:
The Bloodprint
The Queen of the Tearling trilogy
Faithfully Feminist
Full Frontal Feminism
Wonder Woman Unbound (I read the author’s book on Catwoman and enjoyed it immensely)
Several of Mary Renault’s non-Greek fiction novels, including “The Middle Mist” and “The Charioteer”.
And more I am forgetting.
@Francesca, I’m trying to limit my internet time too, especially social media. I find like I’m on more even mental keel without it. Solidarity! (fist bump)
Okay, I have a cat in my lap and two (finally!) happy and quiet children on either side of me, so I’m not getting up to get my notebook. 😉
I actually haven’t read a lot, so I should be able to reconstruct most this.
I loved –
“Meant To Be” by Lauren Merrill. YA with a girl in London on a school trip searching for her one true love aka “Meant to Be” while dealing with an obnoxious boy. And maybe there is more to him than she thinks… I first saw this on Whatcha Reading and I thought I smelled my catnip and I was right, so thank you internet person! This was adorable and tropey in all the best ways. There are some parts that are cringey and embarrassing, so watch out it if that’s something you hate watch out. Also I thought they were both genuinely immature and awful at certain times, but they both grew and ya know, ya, so it didn’t irritate me. If they were in their 20s I might feel differently.
Also loved –
in audiobooks
“Fool Moon” by Jim Butcher. Second in the Harry Dresden series. I read the first in his series and wasn’t impressed, but I kept hearing great things about James Marsters narration and I wanted something different and yes, this hit the spot. Harry can be a bit of a sexist @sshat and there’s lots of commentary on women’s bodies :-/, but I felt like his sexism did get him trouble and various women called him out on it, so it didn’t bother me much. YMMV, obviously. I now have a crush on James Marsters real American accent and I never thought I’d say that (#teamSpikeforlife)
“Shrill” by Lindy West. Lindy West used to write about stuff on Jezebel that would make me whoop with laughter, so I knew I had to read this. Like all books that are really a collection of essays it’s a bit of a mixed bag, but I’m enjoying it. She talks about some upsetting things Internet harassment, abortion, etc. and I’m not done with it yet, so proceed with caution if you have specific triggers.
In graphic novels
Saga 2 and Ms. Marvel 2. I really enjoy both these series, but I actually have to (gasp) go to the library and check out physical books so they’re not going as fast as I like.
In the good, not great category.
“Apples Should Be Red” by Penny Watson. I started this novella in January and the hero used the “R word” specifically as an insult in his opening scene. I get that he’s supposed to be an older guy and one who is really unpleasant, but I could not get past that for a long time. It set my teeth on edge. I finally sat down and read it in one afternoon for the TBR challenge. I enjoyed it although I felt like a lot of novellas, things moved really fast? But we need more love stories with older protagonists. I liked that aspect.
“Wilde in Love” by Eloisa James. This is really cute and I’m enjoying it, but not super grabbing me for some reason? I’m glad I read it, just doesn’t feel memorable.
“An Unholy Alliance” by Susanna Gregory. I wanted to like this because I’m always looking for more historical mystery. The plot is good, but I’m finding the writing style and characters a bit dry.
Thanks for hosting this, folks! I had fun with it this year.
I finally got round to getting back to Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone. Great world building, really good story and characters.
I just started Heroine Complex, by Sarah Kuhn and am enjoying it so far. (Discovered I won a giveaway for it, the sequel, and a cute tote bag when UPS delivered the package. Nice boost to the day.)
I also started Star Wars: Canto Bight while waiting for movies to start yesterday. I’ve only read most of “The Wine in Dreams” so far, but I’m enjoying it.
I read Uprooted per bitchery recommendation, loved it, whined that the ending was abrupt when I wanted more, and dived right into more fairy tales with McKinley’s Outlaws of Sherwood Forest. I’m on the edge of a YA binge, so this is my last fairy tale for a while.
I have been trying out contemporary romance, following some recommendations here.
I found a Penny Reid novel, free on Amazon UK. Neanderthal Meets Human was an unusual read for me. I suspect I am not a member of Reid’s target audience, and no doubt I missed many of the cultural references. There were a couple of words that I meant to look up in Urban Dictionary because I didn’t have a clue. Speaking characters were all White, straight people in their twenties, which surprised me because it was set in Chicago, and much was made of the heroine’s love of the city. There was one passage where she compared it favourably to New York and Los Angeles. But, there was no sense at all of the city’s social and political complexities. Very non-diverse- if that’s the right term. It didn’t seem very realistic, but perhaps I am simply too old, too British or both to ‘get’ it.
Also mentioned was Theodora Taylor and I tried His for Keeps, 99p (well, for experiments, cheap is better). This was even more outside my reading experience. I did enjoy Taylor’s use of language. One character is from a different US state to the others and his voice- cadence of speech and phrases used, etc, was different enough that I noticed whenever he came on stage (as it were). I was tickled by that, and it made the story more convincing. Of course I have no clue about actual speech patterns in these areas, so Taylor may have pulled the wool over my eyes, completely. This was set in the southern US and its characters were fairly diverse in age, class and ethnicity. The romance was somewhat kinky. The hero says that he’s tried the BDSM scene, but realised that he didn’t want someone to be submissive to him. Rather he wants someone to fight him. They go on to have what might be described as wrestling matches. There is no punching/choking or distasteful violence, but he clearly uses physical strength to restrain her. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about that, but I was engaged enough to want to find out how the relationship developed.
I may well re-read both of these, but I suspect it is easier to suspend disbelief with historical romances.
Whoops! Forgot to add that Mira Grant was the author of “The Wine in Dreams.”
I just finished Tangled by Emma Chase. A very weak M’eh rating. There were a shitload of Star Wars comics that were just .99 cents each. How could I not buy them? Also there’s this ebook I picked up on the cheap called Beyond Heaving Bosoms that I’m hoping to get to while I’m off on Xmas vacation.
I just started Chasing Christmas Eve by Jill Shalvis, and I have Moonlight Over Manhattan by Sarah Morgan to read next. I can’t believe that Christmas is almost here. I’m running out of time to read the holiday romances on my TBR pile.
For some reason, my reading this month was mostly gritty and/or bdsm. I guess just because it’s December, it can’t be all Christmas cookies and the Hallmark Channel.
I’m glad I gave Jill Sorenson a second chance after being shocked a couple of months ago by a scene in RIDING DIRTY (the first book I’d read by her) where the hero sexually assaults the heroine. Thankfully, other Sorenson books I’ve read since then, while gritty, don’t contain similar scenes. This month, I read a couple of her Harlequin Silhouette books: STRANDED WITH HER EX (enforced proximity, second chance, and a potential murderer on the loose on an isolated island off San Francisco) and TEMPTED BY HIS TARGET (on the run from drug cartels in Mexico, also with enforced proximity). Then I read the sequel to RIDING DIRTY, SHOOTING DIRTY—a very dark story about a hit man for a motorcycle gang who becomes involved with a stripper who happens to be the ex-wife of one of the men he’s killed. That plot outline doesn’t really do justice to the three-dimensionality of the characters who are flawed but have dreams, hopes, and ambitions for themselves and their families (both the hero and heroine have children from prior relationships).
This month also meant more of one of my all-time favorites, Jackie Ashenden. I virtually inhaled the first three books in her Texas Bounty series (the remaining three books are scheduled for publication next year) about the interconnected lives and loves of the people working for two rival “Fugitive Recovery” (aka bounty hunter) agencies in Austin: TAKE ME DEEPER, MAKE IT HURT, and TAKE ME HARDER. Like Ashenden’s Motor City Royals series, these books are grittier and darker than her various billionaire series; but even when faced with family dysfunction, past traumas, ex-cons, motorcycle club members, seedy bars, drug cartel criminals, and questionable choices, each book’s hero and heroine work together to achieve their well-earned HEA.
And then I read Ashenden’s latest, THE BIG, BAD BILLIONAIRE, the next in her Billionaire Fairy Tales series, and it was oh so good! I rank it right up with my all-time favorite Ashenden book, TAKING HIM; and, like that book, THE BIG, BAD BILLIONAIRE has a terribly damaged hero who uses self-inflicted pain as a way of coping with unresolved trauma. The heroine of TBBB is a ballerina who is dancing the part of Little Red Riding Hood in a company production; she hopes to convince the hero—who controls her trust fund—to allow her to study in Paris. There’s lots of angst—but in the best possible way. Loved it!
Tamsen Parker’s PERSONAL GEOGRAPHY was a free download—so naturally, after I started reading (and enjoying) it, I discovered it is part of her six-book Compass Point series (of which none of the others are freebies); although only the second book, INTIMATE GEOGRAPHY, is a direct sequel. What I liked about PERSONAL and INTIMATE GEOGRAPHY was their matter-of-fact tone toward bdsm. The book dwelt less on the mechanics of bdsm play (although I did have to look up what a Wartenberg Wheel was) and much more on the relationship dynamics between the dom and sub. In a way, the books reminded me of some of CD Reiss’s bdsm-themed books: strong, competent, hard-working heroines whose sexual kink just happens to include being a sub.
I then read two other books in the Compass Point series, TRUE NORTH and DUE SOUTH. Both have main characters who make ancillary appearances in the GEOGRAPHY books. TRUE NORTH features a couple who, years after their divorce, reconnect through a bdsm club. DUE SOUTH has a very sweet, somewhat inexperienced, couple fumbling their way to love. I usually don’t do “sweet”, but the couple in DUE SOUTH are quite endearing.
Although I don’t read many historicals anymore, I enjoyed Alyson Chase’s Regency, DISCIPLINED BY THE DUKE, very much. Yes, there’s a bdsm element but it really works well within the framework of the story and didn’t feel in any way tacked on. The heroine is a noblewoman, disguised as a chambermaid, who has to infiltrate a Duke’s home (there’s a long backstory involving the heroine’s attempt to free her sister from prison for murdering their abusive father—just go with it). The Duke is a dom who likes to use his riding crop even when he’s not on his horse—ha-ha. The Duke meets his new chambermaid and, naturally, sparks (and the riding crop) fly.
Then I was thrilled to discover that I hadn’t read all of Anne Calhoun’s books. I still had her two Walkers Ford novels, UNFORGIVEN and JADED, to finish. UNFORGIVEN is about a former marine who returns to his hometown and reconnects with his high school girlfriend. Their relationship grows as he helps her renovate her grandfather’s dilapidated mansion. Renovation is also a theme of JADED, where the town’s interim librarian begins an affair with the Chief of Police, who is also her landlord and is renovating the kitchen in the house she rents from him. Both books are reliably good (it’s hard to find a Calhoun book that isn’t), but now I’m bummed because I’ve read everything Calhoun has published.
Meghan March’s RUTHLESS KING was a “guilty pleasure”: in order to save her family’s New Orleans whiskey distillery, a woman becomes the mistress of a crime kingpin. Shades of 50 Shades, but with an older, more self-aware heroine (and better use of sex toys). Undoubtedly a capitalist rescue fantasy, but I may still read the subsequent books in the trilogy because of a big plot-twist cliffhanger at the end of this book.
Speaking of “guilty pleasures,” I read a three-book collection called Louisiana Liaisons by Lynda Chance. My response was on the “meh” side. I didn’t find these stories half as enthralling as the four books in Chance’s House of Rule series; perhaps because these books are shorter and the action has to be more compressed, so there wasn’t time to either develop or explain the heroes’ insta-love/lust or to mitigate their alpha-hole tendencies. But I will give Chance credit for having older heroes and heroines (late-thirties/early-forties—and one hero who is fifty) who have children, mortgages, jobs, and prior relationships. But I live in Louisiana and other than references to Baton Rouge and some last names—like Bergeron, Babin, and Fontenot—that are far more common here than elsewhere, I don’t really get a Louisiana vibe from these books.
There’s a lot going on in Alice Ward’s THE CABIN—perhaps too much. I enjoy angst as much as the next reader, but in this story of a couple trapped in a cabin by a Montana snowstorm, both the hero and the heroine have multiple devastating traumas in their pasts. No matter how sizzling the chemistry, how hot the enforced-proximity sex, or how “aaawwww” the cute factor of an old dog adopting a stray kitten, there’s so much horror in the characters’ backstories, it’s hard to accept their eventual HEA.
I downloaded Aleatha Romig’s CONSEQUENCES months ago with a batch of other free romances. I’d forgotten all about it until I opened it accidentally when searching for another book on my kindle. I started reading and was almost halfway through a morass of WTF-ery and NOPE of abduction, rape, mental and physical abuse, and captivity when I realized there was no way the “hero” was redeemable and no way the book was a romance. I finally realized the book’s genre was mislabeled and should clearly have been psychological suspense (and not of the type I would choose to read). Otoh, it was a freebie, so all I lost was my time.
I’ve been a bit indecisive lately when it comes to books and have started many, but hardly finished any of them. At the same time I’m unwillingly to leave them to incomplete.
Current pending books: 1. All That Glows- by Ryan Graudin. Most likely won’t finish this one. I loved her Wolf by Wolf duology, but everything else she wrote is below average.
2. Clockwork Planet by Yuu Kamiya and Tsubaki Himana. These are short light novels that have an interesting world and premise, but read like a budding teenage writer’s first novel that lacks a full understanding of basics like character developement. I will probably finish this one because it’s short and I only have a chapter or two and it is intriguing enough, but it will be deleted from my tablet as soon as I finish it.
3.Joanna by Roberta Gellis- the book is good, but one of Gellis’s most political( as it is seeped in medieval political drama, not relevant to real world politics) and its really dense. I’ll finish it eventually cause it’s a good story, I just have to be in the mood for it.
4. Masques of Gold by Roberta Gellis- this one hardly belongs here because I will probably finish it first out of all these. It is essentially a Romantic Suspense novel set in the medieval
era and it’s great. The hero is even that era’s version of a police officier and the heroine is almost a fem fatale as she hires the hero to solve the murder of a husband she doesn’t love. It’s more of a “how ya gonna get him” instead of a
“whodunnit” , but still it’s a great book.
I did manage to finish Renegades by Marissa Meyer and it was an excellent book, easily one of the best one’s I’ve read this year. The story is superhero story with a lot of moral grey area ( in a good way ), in fact the heroine is technically a villain whose spying on the heroes to determine their weaknesses. Also her love interest is the adopted son of the two biggest superheroes in this world with a secret identity and an agenda of his own. He’s also sweet as sugar. Lastly. There’s lots of diversity. Just to scratch the surface the heroine is Italian-Latinex, the love interest is black and the two biggest heroes of the world are a gay couple who are madly in love. None of them feel like stereotypes. Seriously if you haven’t read it yet go pic that book up!
Every four years when the winter Olympics rolls around, it seems like there’s a spike in winter sports themed romances (and these days, not just featuring figure skating – yay!). Since I’m a big fan of obscure Olympic sports, I was magnetically drawn to Tamsen Parker’s recent release, LOVE ON THE TRACKS and I loved it. It features an Olympic level luge specialist who gets involved in a fake relationship with one of the members of a popular boy band when it’s revealed in an interview that she has a fangirl crush on him, and he decides to surprise her with a publicity visit because he really admires winter sports athletes. It was sex-positive, sweet, and fun. I gather that the author’s previous books are bdsm focused which isn’t my cuppa, but this book is a standard contemporary romance.
Another recent favorite read was GODS & SWINDLERS by Laura Kirwan. This is the third book in a series that I stumbled across while looking for UF featuring older lead characters, which are few and far between. The first book is called IMPERVIOUS and the series features a 50 YO woman who has just found out that like her late father, she’s impervious to magic and therefore has an important role to play in protecting our world. This series is like a breath of fresh air compared to the usual snarky 18-30 YO’s who are the main characters in most UF.
Another great UF that I read was EDGE OF DREAMS, the 2nd book in the Diamond City UF series by Diana Pharaoh Francis, who IMHO is very underrated when it comes to UF. I loved her Horngate witches series and I’m thoroughly enjoying this series also. I’ve also fallen into Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series after I won the first three books in a contest. I’m having a hard time restraining myself from a total binge, and instead trying to space them out a bit.
I’m currently in the middle of DANCE WITH ME by Alexis Daria and loving it. I have not yet read TAKE THE LEAD, the first book in the series, but it’s now vaulted to the top of my wishlist. My only criticism of it is that there isn’t enough actual dance scenes in it, but otherwise, it’s a great romance.
Finally, in Nonfiction I read NOMADLAND by Jessica Bruder which was a fascinating look at the subculture of people who have given up (or been forced to give up) their houses and now live in vans, RVs, converted school buses, etc. Many of them are seniors, now living wholly or mainly on small social security checks, who always worked hard, but never made much money, and now can’t afford a house or even the monthly rent on an apartment. I have an uncle who willingly moved into an RV years ago and is now settled permanently in an RV park in Yuma, AZ, so I already had some familiarity with this lifestyle. From my personal experience with various people that I’ve met through him, the book seemed pretty accurate.
I normally compartmentalize my historical romance reading, but this was the month that real life finally intruded. There was no getting away from it. I tried to read “Duke of Sin” but when I got to an early scene where the hero parades around naked, uninvited, in front of his housekeeper-ugh, ugh, ugh. I don’t care how beautiful he is. I love Hoyt’s Maiden Lane and I’m sure I’ll get back to it eventually, but now is not the time. Then I picked up an old Signet Regency where the hero, who is a nobleman, is masquerading as a stablehand and kisses the heroine without her permission. She reports him to the head groom, because she wants him to be fired, and the head groom totally disbelieves her! Ugh again. I was so mad!
The book that finally got me out of that slump, I feel kind of bad recommending, because it’s not available any more; “Artistic License” by Elle Pierson, who now writes as Lucy Parker. Not sure how long it was sitting in my Kindle and I’m not sure why it got pulled off the market, but I hope it’ll get rereleased. It’s wonderful; a contemporary set in New Zealand, with an artist heroine and a bit of a beauty and the beast trope.
Beauty and the beast, which implies a beta hero, is really working for me right now, I am also enjoying “Lady Isabella’s Ogre” by Emily Larkin, and then I’m starting Tessa Dare’s “The Duchess Deal”. Cross-class romance, where the heroine is the one who is rich and/or socially superior is my jam, and that’s really hitting the spot right now too. I loved “The Lady and Mr. Jones” by Alyssa Alexander, and looking for more of the same.
I also enjoyed Lorraine Heath’s “An Affair With a Notorious Heiress”, and I was happy to find out it was the second generation of her Scoundrels of St. James series, so I got to see all those characters again. That series was loaded with cross-class romance.
@Kristen-thank you, thank you for the Genevieve Turner rec, “Forever a Soldier” is free on Kindle right now, I snapped it up!
@Deborah-I’m a big fan of Susanna Fraser. I thought the Waterloo scenes in “An Infamous Marriage” were among the best I’ve ever read, and I loved “A Marriage of Inconvenience”(Cinderella story), “The Sergeant’s Lady”(cross-class military romance) and “A Dream Defiant”(interracial military romance).
:::drives up blaring Ben Franklin’s Song, because I’ve been playing it nearly on a loop for the past 24 hours, and opens up the Goodreads and last month’s post, like a big geek:::
Let’s see, I left off reading Wilde In Love, which had some nice moments, but I see the concerns about how the female villain character was handled. It was pretty clear that she was a character with severe and untreated mental illness, and making her both an object of ridicule and menace felt a bit…off. Which is too bad, because I liked the interplay between the leads, their friends, and how the next book was set up. Then I read Highland Dragon Warrior by Isabel Cooper, which was, really a nicer read. I really liked how the alchemy was handled, needed more of him being a dragon, though. After that it was Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, which really…it was carnivorous mermaids. Come on, I was never going to pass that up. It was fun, I mean, if you’re into people getting their faces eaten. I am, so I enjoyed myself, and I should probably be concerned about what this says about me. Then I gave into temptation and downloaded Retribution Rails by Erin Bowman. It was a quasi-sequel to Vengeance Road, and was even better than Vengeance Road, which was pretty damn good itself, so that’s saying something. These are, and I am not even kidding, YA Westerns. Don’t let the YA thing fool you, either. They’re violent. Like Tarantino violent. Retribution Rails opens with a train robbery, and people get dead from the jump. Thoroughly loved it (again, feeling a little bit concerned about what this says about me). At this point, The Girl In the Tower by Katherine Arden was batting its eyelashes at me from my Kindle, and oh, my. Man, can Arden write. It’s just so evocative and lush. I rounded out the month with Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor. It’s the sequel to Akata Witch, which came out 6 years ago, and if you need a reference, it gets tagged a lot as “Nigerian Harry Potter”, which, yes, there are some similarities. It was an enjoyable read; I love how she uses Nigerian mythology as she tells Sunny’s story. Which brings us to today, and I have just dived into Year One by Nora Roberts. I know she wants to tell a different story and take a different tack from her romances, and this hews closer to dystopian science fiction with a hint of evil faerie magic while we’re at it. Ability is ability, folks. The woman knows how to write, and the opening is a grabber. I started it last night and mowed through 102 pages before I zonked.
I’ve been on a romantic suspense kick lately and was running out of authors, when the new Laura Griffin popped up on this site. Luckily my library had all her books, so I’ve been reading those and alternating them with Linda Castillo Amish series, which I’d been putting off for a long time.
I was really pleasantly surprised, I didn’t know they were first person and when I started reading them got really annoyed and didn’t think I could stick it out, but Castillo does a really good job with it. I think because she’s an established author versus the new authors writing for the first time that are flooding the market with horrible first person. So if you stick it out through the first Castillo Amish book, they are really good.
I think that it’s been a couple of months since I’ve posted on what I’m reading…
I’ve *finally* started reading the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache books – not romances but good mysteries – I just picked up the 4th in the series from the library yesterday evening.
I picked up a bunch of Mary Stewart books when they went on sale a couple of months ago, and have been indulging in books that I haven’t read since high school (20+ years ago). So far, they are holding up well!
I just finished Keepsake, the 3rd True North book by Sarina Bowen – I have loved all of the books in the series, but I think that this was my favourite to date. I loved the characters and was totally invested in their future.
I read Sofia Khan is Not Obliged – it was good but not outstanding and I doubt if I will read the follow-up (the spoilers in the reviews I’ve read suggest that it will go off in a totally different direction and I would rather leave the characters where they were at the end of the first book). I especially enjoyed reading a first-person book with a person of faith that wasn’t a so-called “inspirational.”
At work, I’m reading Womanist Midrash by Wil Gafney – also not a romance but yay for womanist theology!
And I finally succumbed and subscribed to Netflix…
Pretty good month all in all. It started with Etched In Bone the latest Others novel from Anne Bishop. I can not say enough what a great reading experience this series has been. The highlight of the year.
Then there’s was In a Treacherous Court, a welcome rec from the Bitchery as well as A Talent For Trickery. Thanks ladies.
Then there was Joanna Bourne’s latest, Beauty Like The Night which is one of those books you put down with a sigh, and then pick up and start all over. So good.
Followed that with Artemis which I commented on earlier this week. And now I’m 2/3 through Wrong To Need You which makes it seem like I’m copying the Smart Bitches reading list, but really, they’re copying me. Also, If there’s a review of that new Nora Roberts posted this week, I’m checking my TBR pile for a camera.
I just… haven’t been reading that much. Between my work schedule and my running, I just haven’t made time for it.
I did make time for WRONG TO NEED YOU by Alisha Rai, and I won’t lie, I loved this book, way more than HATE TO WANT YOU. She is a *brilliant* writer and I loved the characters.
Read Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane finale, DUKE OF DESIRE, which was not memorable, except for the fairy tale, which I would have much preferred to read.
CHASING CHRISTMAS EVE, by Jill Shalvis, was fun, but I need to reread it. I don’t remember much of it.
If anyone has good medical romance suggestions, send them my way. I’ve been hunting for contemporary medical romances, that preferably feature a female doctor, but haven’t been able to find anything that really grabs me.
I’ve been reading the Kopp sisters books, by Amy Stewart, which aren’t romances, but are actually quite fun.
AFTER ANATEVKA, by Alexandra Silber, also not romance, but a really interesting “what happened after Fiddler on the Roof” story if you’re into musicals. Obviously heavily researched and detailed, and really well written.
Will definitely be looking into LOVE ON THE TRACKS and UPROOTED now, because those sound right up my alley. 🙂
LOVECRAFT UNBOUND, edited by Ellen Datlow. An anthology of neo-Lovecraftian horror stories that generally don’t feature the cliched “Lovecraftian” tropes – tentacular monsters, the students and staff of Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon, etc. Lovecraftian horror is my great literary passion other than romance – if I’m not reading a historical, I’m probably reading a Cthulhu Mythos anthology.
I have had a good reading month, despite the fact that my Kindle Paperwhite is acting up and I haven’t decided what to get to replace it (another e-ink Kindle, an iPad mini, or a new phone with a 5.5+ in screen). The last two books I finished were The Mountain between Us and Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. I just started Christmas on Crimson Mountain which btw is a freebie in the Harlequin store today.
Also started reading the short story “Cat Person” that was published in The New Yorker on their website. It has generated a lot of buzz.
WILD GIRLS by Mary Stuart Atwell. Bit Southern Gothic, bit YA, set in an exclusive girls’ boarding school (which is my own particular catnip). I enjoyed it enough to keep an eye out for Atwell’s next book.
THE DRY by Jane Harper. I picked this one up as a 99c Kindle Deal, and really enjoyed it, even though the central mystery wasn’t terribly mysterious in the end. It’s about a small Australian Outback town gripped by a fierce, relentless drought, and the setting was hugely atmospheric – the school plants a sapling to honour a dead child, and the adults watch, feeling the heat coming up from the ground through their shoes, knowing that the tree will die.
SLEEP LIKE A BABY by Charlaine Harris. The latest in the long-running Aurora Teagarden series. I’m not certain why I keep reading this series, as they really do require the most massive suspension of disbelief – why DO all these murders keep happening in the vicinity of a sweet teeny librarian with big glasses? – but at this point, all the characters feel like old friends.
THE PINHOE EGG by Diana Wynne Jones. I’ve just re-read all the Chrestomanci books (a children’s series which helped inspire Harry Potter) and found them immensely comforting. I liked them as a child, but I found the winding and twisty plotlines a little confusing; as an adult, I appreciate the tiny clues she drops everywhere a lot more.
I’m not reading romances at the moment, and I think it’s because the last three I tried were DNF for me. It seems to be rarer and rarer that I find a romance and think ‘Yes, I am keeping this forever!’, and even the newer romances released by old favourite authors (Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas) just aren’t grabbing me. I should probably go through my Kindle and weed out all the romances where I struggled through two or three chapters before dropping it.
Read the Call of Crow series by Shelly Laurenston. I was intrigued by the idea of them for a gift for an almost-15-year-old friend, but she wouldn’t like the amount of gore and violence. Also not sure how I feel about the sex part, but I could get past that knowing what I read at that age! Any recommendations for similar ideas of girl power books and sisterhood with less bloodthirsty-ness would be great.
But I really enjoyed them which is why I read all three.
Also have read and re-read a short story called Handmade Holidays by ‘Nathan Burgoine. It’s a very sweet story about found family and has bits of romance hints in it. Queer relationships dominate and his other books are also sweet and wonderful (*he is an internet friend, full disclosure).
I just reread all the Troubleshooters and then the latest one. I liked it, I always like Brockmann’s books, but the heroine is a romance novelist and that is personally one of my least favorite scenarios.
Still loving the Patrick O’Brian books, still waiting for Temeraire to show up in them.
I read the latest Tessa Dare, I think she’s super talented, but it took me forever to get through it. It was just sort of fluffy and meta and way too much intentional anachronism for me to love it.
I tried to read Chemisty, it came up in the NPR recs, and gave it up. It felt kind of YA and twee, but if you’re not put off by those things, it was otherwise promising.
I usually look forward to this post and it’s the first thing I do when I get on the internet. Totally forgot this month. How is it the third Saturday already? Plus, I ‘m trying to be really good about not buying new books and you guys are killing me! So many great sounding books have been talked about already.
Here’s what I read:
Renegades and Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer- Both of these were for the challenge I’m trying to complete. Wires and Nerve fit the book with pictures prompt. So I know I’m weird, but I don’t love graphic novels. I find it hard and distracting to try to take in all the art and detail in the pictures while reading the text. I didn’t really have that problem with this one, but the story was just okay for me. Renegades fit the prompt of an author visiting the city of the paper doing the challenge. I loved it. Really good characters and storytelling.
The Wicked Duke by Madeline Hunter- This was an Audible-R book and it was okay. The heroine’s actions often bothered me since she believes the hero raped her cousin.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood- This fit the book you’ve owned forever prompt for my challenge. I always enjoy Atwood’s work.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid- Another challenge book (book recommended by a local bookseller or librarian), it was beautifully written and lovely story.
Boracay Vows by Maida Malby- Full disclosure, I’m Facebook friends with the author. This is a debut book and the first couple chapters were a little shaky for me (although that may have be due to my ongoing off-again, on-again reading slump), but I ended up finding the story very sweet. I loved the sense of place (the Philippines) and getting to see a culture not often portrayed in romance books.
Night by Elie Wiesel- Another book challenge book, such a beautifully written book about such a devastating subject.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon- Another Audible-R book, it was really cute and sweet.
Artemis by Andy Weir- I liked this one a little better than Carrie S. who reviewed it on here, but I basically agreed with her review. The slut-shaming was very weird; I kept thinking it had to lead somewhere or why else was it in there?. Maybe to include a ham-handed lesson about why slut-shaming was bad? It never did lead anywhere. Besides being distasteful and disturbing, it was just bad writing. I really enjoyed the actual plot and action, but the character development was not good. I also wonder if it’s going to be a series and maybe some of the characters will eventually grow.
An Ex for Christmas by Lauren Layne- I found the heroine really annoying in the first couple chapters. She was just too cheerful, too quirky and it was a little grating. Once we meet the hero and the heroine starts her quest to figure out which ex is her soulmate, the heroine’s quirks seemed more likable. It was cute, fluffy and just want I want in a Christmas romance.
Sweet Tea and Sympathy by Molly Harper- This was a little more women’s fiction than romance. The pacing was uneven, but I enjoyed it overall. The romance didn’t really happen until quite a ways into the story, but it was really nice. I loved the interactions between the hero and heroine.
Elemental Assasin books 12-!5 by Jennifer Estep- I’m almost caught up. Just two novellas and a one full-length. I had forgotten how much I enjoy this series.
Right now I’m reading The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shavlis. Then I plan on finishing my challenge with Bonfire by Krysten Ritter and Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore followed by more holiday romances.
I just did one of my heaviest binges of the year, especially as they were mostly new reads:
1. Ainsley Booth’s extended version of PERSONAL DISASTER (shorter version was in the ROGUE DESIRE anthology)
2. ARC of Patricia Briggs’ BURNING BRIGHT
3. ARC of Anne Bishop’s LAKE SILENCE (I’m anxiously awaiting someone else to read this so I can chat)
4. Tamsen Parker’s LOVE ON THE TRACKS (*LOVED*!)
5. HelenKay Dimon’s THE NEGOTIATOR
6. HelenKay’s THE ENFORCER (and I’m totally planning on ignoring my family when THE PRETENDER comes out on the 26th)
7. My upcoming novella as I read it twice to work on the developmental edits and then another read through to send off to the copy editor.
A better reading month after a couple of slow/disappointing ones.
Nora Roberts’ Year One was very readable but far from peak Nora. There’s an expectation-defying late development I’m OK with in itself, but from there she rushes the book to a close in an unsatisfying fashion.
I used to re-read Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks so many times I had to stop, because I was ruining it for myself. This was my first re-read in over a decade, and it’s still wonderful. WftO was one of the earlier urban fantasies, a rock musician recruited for a fairy war in 80s Minneapolis-St. Paul. It’s steeped in the setting and the musical scene of the time, which adds to the enjoyment.
My final designated re-read of the year was Andrea K. Höst’s Touchstone Trilogy. This is a SF series in diary form, about a high-schooler who passes through a gate from Australia to an uninhabited planet. From there, she’s rescued by psychic space ninjas and gets involved in saving the world, as one does.
I like the series for the ways it thinks about its tropes – the world’s indistinguishable-from-magic technology has big privacy concerns, and the protagonist has unique super powers that are often more golf caddy (her words) than Mary Sue. The first installment, Stray, is free at most US ebook retailers – the author is indie and Australian, so likely many other countries too.
I had an accidental encounter with John Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory, a mostly valuable read. The capsule bios of modern pop stars were longer than I needed or cared about, but the material on how modern pop songs are manufactured (deliberate word there) is illuminating. The book explains a lot that puzzled me about modern mega-hits, relative to older pop music – the writing process is vastly different and deemphasizes elements I like. (And you kids get off my lawn!)
I’ll also mention:
– Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City, near-future SFF with a troubled protagonist investigating a disappearance in Johannesburg, by a South African author.
– Ed Yong’s I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life, not as fabulous as his short word at The Atlantic, but still a good read on modern biology.
– James Alan Gardner’s All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault, because Gardner is back!!! Or you could read his first book, Expendable. Gardner has been writing SFF with diversity and disability and women long before it was on the radar.
– Jim C. Hines’ Terminal Alliance, my favorite read from him so far. A spacefaring janitor protagonist, and humor with a heart.
Highly recommend Midwife’s Tale: as history, for women’s issues, for healthcare history. Very well written!
I read Call Me By Your Name because someone mentioned it in a previous Whatcha Reading. I’d never heard of it and didn’t know a movie was coming out. I don’t usually go for bittersweet romances but this one is so moving. With the movie coming out people are raising valid concerns about the age difference of the characters. The author addressed the issue enough to satisfy my own concern. I really haven’t been able to get the book out of my head. It’s such a beautiful romance.
Binged on the Hidden Legacy series from Ilona Andrews, and holy awesomeness Batman, I’m so glad that I waited until the trilogy was complete so that I could slurp them all down at once! BURN FOR ME was really good and WHITE HOT & WILDFIRE were excellent. Now I just need to finish up the Edge series and I’ll have no more Ilona Andrews backlist left… a bittersweet state of affairs.
Finally read HER CHRISTMAS EARL by Anna Campbell in the spirit of the holidays, and it was every bit as cute & delightful as A PIRATE FOR CHRISTMAS.
@Karin, I didn’t realize that ARTISTIC LICENSE had been pulled– what a shame! I agree that I hope she republishes it at some point
Last week I read Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman, and it was fantastic. It is absolutely in my top 5 of the year and might even be my favorite.
The book has its own lovely voice, but here’s the elevator pitch: take TNG’s Data, the narrator of The Rosie Project, and the MC of Confederacy of Dunces, and you get Eleanor, who can be a hilarious jerk while she figures out how to be human. I didn’t think this book was going to be my cup of tea, and I ended up loving it so much I am now stomping around demanding that everyone read it and being extremely dissatisfied with everything I’ve read since.
I re-listened to NATURAL BORN CHARMER by Susan Elizabeth Phillips because I chose it for our February bookclub and want to start a discussion about romance with my group. Plus, it’s just plain funny and who can’t use that when the gloomy months roll around?
I’m trying to read Sarah Pinborough’s BEHIND HER EYES, a psychological thriller. This is why I don’t like the genre: we are absolutely being manipulated to engage with characters that are not particularly likable or sympathetic. Everyone whispers breathlessly about the OMG ending, so I may continue, but I am not happy when it feels as if the author wants to show off how well she misdirects and omits.
I’m reading the amazing YA novel When Dimple Met Rishi. It’s romance that combines a budding feminist heroine, a beta hero, a love of anime, that immigrant experience, the expectations of being a first generation immigrant, classism and a big dose of humor. I’m enjoying it so much. I recommend it highly.
I also just finished the rather engaging biography of the creator of Wonder Woman–The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore.
Finally, I’m a third of the way into a contemporary forbidden romance by Alisha Rai called Hate to Want You.